1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to telecommunications systems and methods and, more specifically, systems and methods for providing advanced telephony services using elements within a service-providing network, which is separate from the transport network which would normally be used to carry a customer's calls, an example being providing usage monitoring services to a wireless customer using a wireline network-based universal telephone number.
2. Description of the Related Art
Telecommunications service providers, such as regional bell operating companies (RBOC), competitive local exchange carriers (CLEC), Internet-protocol (IP) telephony providers, and the like, utilize a variety of infrastructure elements to support their subscribers. For example, an RBOC network typically includes an advanced intelligent network (AIN). The AIN quickly and efficiently routes and terminates a plurality of telephone calls within and between wireline telephone networks, the public-switched telephone network (PSTN), long distance carrier networks, and/or wireless telephone networks. The AIN includes a plurality of interconnected switches, transfer points, service control points (SCPs), databases, and various other network elements to route the telephone calls to the proper destinations and to provide advanced telephony services.
By utilizing these components, the AIN is capable of providing a plurality of advanced telephony services to a wireline PSTN subscriber during a telephone call, such as call delivery services, call forwarding services, call rescue services, custom ring-pattern services, call logging services, and call reporting services. The AIN may also provide voicemail services, custom messaging services, message notification services, message waiting indicator services, caller identification (caller ID) services, privacy director services, anonymous call rejection services, usage monitoring services, personal identification number (PIN) override services, and the like.
For example, BELLSOUTH's PRIVACY DIRECTORSM service allows a subscriber to screen incoming telephone calls. If a telephone call is received from an unknown or a blocked caller, such as a telemarketer, the caller is presented with a message and a prompt that indicates, “if you [the caller] want this telephone call to be delivered to our [the wireline telephone service provider's] subscriber, you must either record your name so that we may deliver it to our subscriber or unblock your telephone number so that we may look your name up and deliver it to our subscriber.” The subscriber then has the option of accepting the telephone call from the now known or unblocked caller, sending the telephone call to voicemail, or presenting the caller with an announcement indicating that the subscriber does not accept telephone calls of this nature.
An example usage monitoring service allows a subscriber to prepay for a “bucket” or predetermined amount of telephone usage time, or to sign an agreement agreeing to pay a plurality of different rates for a plurality of predetermined levels of telephone usage time. For example, the subscriber may agree to pay a higher rate for a relatively low level of telephone usage time and a lower rate for a relatively high level of telephone usage time. In any case, such a usage monitoring service requires a telephone service provider to keep careful track of the subscriber's telephone usage time, possibly across more than one network, e.g., a wireline and wireless network if the single bucket of usage time can apply to both wireline and wireless calls.
Unfortunately for many service providers, the infrastructure necessary to support such advanced telephony features is prohibitively expensive. Many competitive local-exchange carriers, wireless telephone service providers, IP-based telephone service providers, and the like cannot afford the expense of installing and maintaining this infrastructure. Thus, many of the advanced telephony services described above are not available to their subscribers. Conversely, embedded infrastructures to provide such services may exist in other networks and not be fully utilized because of the inability to reach subscribes in other telecommunications networks.
Thus, what are needed are systems and methods for providing advanced telephony services to subscribers in telecommunications systems lacking the infrastructure to support these advanced services by accessing capabilities in other networks that can provide such services.